Ashley Schluender
Excelsior,MN
Summary
Strategic technology executive with a proven track record in leading business and technology transformations to drive organizational growth, performance and profitability. Expertise in developing highly-talented productive teams to execute the IT roadmap and ensure continuous alignment with the overall enterprise strategic direction. Initiatives include $15-100M transformation programs replacing enterprise systems and infrastructure with modern day technology solutions within distribution and manufacturing organizations. Strengths include strategic thought leadership, the ability to influence change at all levels of an organization and strong understanding on the impact of fostering meaningful partnerships to achieve desired business outcomes. Expertise in technology selection and contract execution and have negotiated more than $150M in agreements to-date.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
IT Director
Marvin
Eagan, Minnesota
01.2024 - Current
- Technology leader in $100M, four-year digital transformation program implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 FO and SCM to support future business operating model, including transitioning to a lean manufacturing organization.
- Critical stakeholder in the technology evaluation process and contract negotiations, which resulted in a long-term and highly favorable agreement with Microsoft, including securing subscription costs for eight years.
- Led the solution implementation partner selection process for the executive leadership team, resulting in best-in-class terms and conditions, including lock/cap resource rates, NTE (not to exceed) financial structure and milestone-based forfeiture schedule that is highly beneficial for Marvin.
- Accountable for future state enterprise solution for all process areas - Concept to Market, Order to Cash, Procure to Pay, Forecast to Plan, Plan to Production, Pick to Ship, Asset Management, Post to Close, Project Accounting - to ensure system builds are aligned to the global solution blueprint and delivers the 3000 requirements identified during the Analysis phase.
- Responsible for the overall integration strategy, including Power Platform applications, new and existing ISVs, current state technologies and future state data lake/warehouse.
- Approve all FDDs (functional design documents) and oversee dev team to ensure all custom development is well-documented, code is bug-free and the solution delivers ideal outcomes for the business.
- Lead and support team of solution architects, analysts and data migration and integration leads and provide direction, remove roadblocks and enable growth and career development.
- Key stakeholder in the master data management and data governance strategy to ensure data and transactional integrity.
Sr. IT Manager
NXC Imaging
Minneapolis, MN
12.2018 - 12.2023
- Responsible for software applications across the enterprise. Developed strategic roadmap that aligns with executive team's strategic initiatives and business goals.
- Build and led cross-functional project teams to deliver significant initiatives that have a clear ROI and long-term value for the organization.
- Oversaw all IT operations, infrastructure and applications and ensure the network is operating efficiently, is highly secure and supports current IT policies and SOX compliancies.
- Hired, managed and developed high performing internal and external teams to establish high productivity, trusting relationships and success in achieving individual and team goals.
- Developed and maintained Disaster Recovery and Incident Response plans, IT policies and procedures with an enhanced focus on keeping compliant and up-to-date with industry standards.
IT Manager
NXC Imaging
Minneapolis, MN
02.2015 - 12.2018
- Led $5M Microsoft Dynamics ERP upgrade and Dynamics CRM project from on-premise to the cloud.
- Lead development teams to design, develop, implement and integrate multiple low-code applications to close ERP gaps and support strategic initiatives of the executive leadership team.
- Created an enterprise-wide MDM and data governance team to develop and maintain data standards, policies and best practices to ensure data and transactional integrity.
- Managed development and help desk teams and enabling individuals to grow and reach professional goals to drive top performance.
- Worked closely with executive leadership in strategy planning, bringing a current knowledge and future vision of infrastructure and application technology and systems, and best practices as related to the needs of the business.
- Optimize vendor relationships through contract management and negotiations, financial analyses and relationship management to create mutually beneficial opportunities for the organization.
IT Program Manager
NXC Imaging
Minneapolis, MN
07.2013 - 02.2015
- Led the ERP technology and implementation vendor selection process for business transformation initiative. Negotiated and managed all agreements with vendor partners.
- Successfully led a $15M enterprise-wide Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Salesforce CRM implementation, reducing technical debt by 80%.
- Created and managed project plan, resources, budget and deliverables, which resulted in an on-time and under-budget program outcome.
- Delivered project updates to executive stakeholders, ensuring alignment on objectives.
Education
Bachelor of Arts -
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MNSkills
- Trusting partnerships
- Change management
- Digital transformations
- Integrations Strategy
- MDM data governance strategy
- Microsoft D365 Expert
- Technology selection and contract negotiations
- Network infrastructure management
- Policy Development
- Cybersecurity best practices
- IT strategy development
- ERP implementation
- Stakeholder engagement
- Business process reengineering
Timeline
IT Director
Marvin
01.2024 - Current
Sr. IT Manager
NXC Imaging
12.2018 - 12.2023
IT Manager
NXC Imaging
02.2015 - 12.2018
IT Program Manager
NXC Imaging
07.2013 - 02.2015
Bachelor of Arts -
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities